Galen Leather Zippered Pen Case + GIVEAWAY

Jan 27, 2017 by Felix Jen

I’d like to thank Galen Leather once again for sponsoring this review and giveaway of their Leather Zippered 3 Pen Case! They make some great leather products, such as pen cases, notebook covers, and folios, and you should check them out! They are a small two-person company, from Istanbul, Turkey specializing in handmade leather, wood, and brass products. You can find our previous review of their Leather Pen Roll here. You can find a giveaway of the product featured on the bottom of the page.

As someone who is always carrying a couple daily pens around with me, I’m always on the hunt for a new carrying case or otherwise. Well, Galen Leather’s zippered pen case fit the bill, since I needed something that is compact and secure to store my pens throughout the day.

The pen case comes in Galen Leather’s signature “vintage” cardboard box that we detailed our previous review, so you can check out the details there. Opening the box up, you’ll find the pen case carefully wrapped in a cardboard strip, with some additional documentation under it.

For this particular piece, I opted to choose the “Crazy Horse” color, which is distinguishable by the rustic brown color and lighter “scratched” accents, which give the case a feel of wear and age. I really like this in person, as it adds a lot to the vintage look, without actually making the leather aged or whatnot. This is actually my favorite color in their line up so far!

Opening up the pen case, we are greeted by the star of the show, the velvet lined interior with space for three pens, held by elastic bands. Bands are quite tight, but still very roomy. This let the case hold on to both my thinnest (Bic…) and thickest pen (Visconti Homo Sapiens Bronze) without any fuss at all. Also, the velvet interior gave me peace-of-mind that the metal finishes of my pens would not get scratched.

Though I’m a big fan of the elastic system, my only small gripe is the lack of a bottom elastic. Sometimes, when jostling the case with the three pens, the bottoms of the pens might get in contact with one another. Despite not being a terrible problem, I think it would be a bit better to have loops or elastics on the bottom, just for extra protection.

As to the size of the pens that will fit into the case, the case will comfortably hold up to 5.7” (14.5cm) pens without an issue. This will cover most of your fountain, rollerball, and ballpoint pens with room to clear. However, some longer implements like mechanical pencils and others (like the Apple Pencil) will adamantly not fit. Can’t knock any points off here though, since this is an obvious design constraint. There will always be something that doesn’t fit. The size they went with seems like a good compromise between compactness and versatility. The case itself measures 6.18” x 3.5” x 0.82” (15.7cm x 8.9cm x 2.1cm) so it’s quite tiny.

On the left-hand side of the case, you get a lovely pouch for a small notebook and a card. Personally, I found the card slot to be a bit tight, so it made sticking stuff in and out a slight pain. As well, given the compact nature of the case, you won’t be fitting large notepads in the slot anytime soon. The slot can accommodate a notebook up to 3.5” (8.7cm) x 5” (12.7cm) in size. That said, keep thickness in mind—the thickest you could fit would be something like a Field Notes notebook. The interior of this is also velvet lined which is a nice touch.

Back to the outside of the case, let’s take a look at the zipper. From my experience, in any zippered product, it’s always the zipper that fails first. Galen Leather opted to go for a fabric-lined zipper which seems very durable and smooth. I haven’t had any snags or jams in my time with the case so far. The zipper head is also quite durable, though I can’t say the brand of it for certain. Update: Received confirmation from GalenLeather that the zippers are from YKK, so no knockoff here. Eschewing the typical metal zipper handle, Galen Leather went above and beyond by adding their own leather loop, stitched together. I love the feel of the handle and it complements the rest of the case pretty well.

All in all, I really like this pen case. It’s small compact size makes it perfect for taking around in a bag or even a coat pocket. It’s made of high quality materials and should stand up to the test of time without a hitch. This pen case comes out to $39.00 USD (not including shipping from Turkey) and can be found here. At $39, it’s a very solid value for what you can get out of it.

As a Thank-You to our readers, we’ll be running a giveaway of the 3 Pen Case, exactly as featured on this post. You can enter below, or by sending your entry to admin@inksandpens.com. The giveaway will run from 12:00AM January 28, 2017 to 12:00AM February 06, 2017. The winner will be notified via email submitted 1-3 days after giveaway close.